Waching daily Feb 17 2017

While James Dolan's ongoing feud with former Knick Charles Oakley continues tounspool in public, the Madison Square Garden Chairman has an unlikely — yet ardent — ally in his corner.

"I think Dolan's a terrific owner. I really do," Donald Sterling told the Daily News Thursday. "He does the best he can do, and unfortunately sometimes a player misunderstands.

I was an owner for 33 years, and sometimes players misunderstand."

Former Clippers team owner Donald Sterling compliments James Dolan.

(Mark J. Terrill/AP)

Sterling, the former Clippers owner, received a lifetime ban from NBA commissioner Adam Silver in 2014 after racist comments Sterling made on tape were made public by his girlfriend at the time. Sterling was forced to sell the Clippers that same year, and former Microsoft chief executive officer Steve Ballmer bought the team for $2 billion. Clippers star point guard Chris Paul threatened to sit out the 2014-15 season and Clippers coach Doc Rivers said he would step down had Sterling remained as owner.

In a Thursday interview with Oakley conducted by Sports Illustrated reporter Maggie Gray, Garden fan favorite Oakley agreed that Dolan is on the same level as Sterling.

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New York Daily News back pages of 2017

"You believe that he's a racist, James Dolan?" Gray asked Oakley.

"Um.. I mean, he's on the level," Oakley replied.

Sterling chuckled Thursday when told about the comparison made between him and Dolan.

"Oakley compared me to Dolan? Isn't that amazing. I feel bad about Oakley.

I wish that he could understand that there are no hard feelings by Dolan towards him.

Owners don't have hard feelings towards the players," said Sterling.

"They want the players to succeed, because when the players succeed, (owners) succeed."

Madison Square Garden chairman and Knicks owner James Dolan.

(Kathy Willens/AP)

Oakley may forever have a hard time seeing Dolan in the same light as Sterling sees the Knick owner, especially after Dolan implied that Oakley is an alcoholic and that Oakley is "physically and verbally abusive," in an interview on ESPN's "The Michael Kay Show."

"I never had any hard feelings about anybody," said Sterling. "Anybody. And I'm sure Dolan doesn't either. I would hope that maybe (Oakley and Dolan) could get together and reach a level where they're both comfortable with each other."

These days, Sterling, 82, said he is "very happy that it's all behind me," referring to the 2014 controversy that played out for most of that year. He praised Silver for how he handled the Sterling/Clippers matter, but Sterling also made a point to vouch for his own character.

Charles Oakley is hauled out of the Garden and arrested during a game against the Clippers.

(Frank Franklin II/AP)

"If you ever talk to anybody who knows me, all the basketball owners, some of the football owners, they know me. I don't have a negative feeling in my whole life for anyone. I love people," said Sterling.

"I want to say, that (the Clippers matter) was well handled by the league and by the commissioner, Adam.

I think that with minorities — whatever minority they are — we ought to do everything we can to help them."

Sterling's advice to Dolan? Just try to get along with Oak.

"I don't think this conflict benefits anybody. I don't think it benefits the league, and I don't think it benefits (Oakley), and it's not really good for the owner," said Sterling. "What's the point?

What's the purpose? Is there a purpose?"

For more infomation >> EXCLUSIVE: Donald Sterling thinks it's 'amazing' Charles Oakley is comparing Knicks owner James D... - Duration: 3:15.

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Press conference shows something is deeply wrong with our President and the country is in danger - Duration: 3:54.

If one can say that the Trump presidency has been off to a rocky start, his press conference today was an avalanche of boulders. "I'm here today to update the American people on the incredible progress that has been made in the last four weeks since my inauguration" is what Trump said at the outset.

An update about incredible progress was not what followed over the next 77 minutes, one of the longest — and certainly the most bizarre — press conference in the history of the American presidency.

An explanation for the extraordinary display is not hard to come by. For the first month of his presidency, Trump has been engaged in frenetic activity, but things have not been going well. His signature immigration executive order was blocked by the courts, his cabinet appointees have been slow-rolled by Congress, he is engaged in open warfare with the nation's intelligence agencies, he is embroiled in a mushrooming scandal concerning possible collusion between his campaign and Russian intelligence, and his National Security adviser, General Flynn, was forced to resign for misconduct in yet a second, separate Russia-related scandal.

Over 77 minutes, President Trump held one of the longest — and certainly the most bizarre — press conferences in the history of the American presidency.

(Pablo Martinez Monsivais/AP)

On a daily basis, from early morning and in the dark of night, perhaps for many hours at a time, President Trump has been turning the channels, watching news coverage of this unraveling. And he has been stewing. The cascade of blunders and bad news was not supposed to be the way things happened.

This press conference was an opportunity for a volcanic vent.

"I inherited a mess. It's a mess," was Trump's opening gambit. Never mind that he came into office with the unemployment rate at a post-recession low, and the stock market at a record high, he repeated this as if it were an incantation, "At home and abroad, a mess I just want to let you know, I inherited a mess."

If America has problems, insisted Trump, they come not from the White House but the press. The press, he explained, "has become so dishonest that if we don't talk about, we are doing a tremendous disservice to the American people…the press honestly is out of control. The level of dishonesty is out of control."

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Donald Trump in the White House

But what exactly is the press getting wrong? "I turn on the TV, open the newspapers," explained Trump, "and I see stories of chaos. Chaos. Yet it is the exact opposite.

This administration is running like a fine-tuned machine."

The botched travel ban? To Trump it was not botched at all. "We had a very smooth rollout of the travel ban." Indeed, "the rollout was perfect."

A perfect rollout? A fine-tuned machine? If Trump believes any of this to be true, he is delusional.

Yet even if he is not suffering from outright delusions, and is simply attempting to cover his obvious failures with glorious adjectives, his mind, as it was put on display today, clearly has wires crossed.

In one breath Trump says the hurriedly thrown-together travel ban was rolled out perfectly. In almost the very next breath, he says "if I would've done it a month, everything would've been perfect." Isn't there a contradiction here?

President Trump signs an Executive Order establising extreme vetting of people coming to the United States on Jan. 27.

(CARLOS BARRIA/REUTERS)

In one breath, Trump says the stories reporting the Russia scandals engulfing his administration are "fake news, fabricated deal... It's all fake news. It's all fake news." In almost the very next breath he complains that those same stories are based upon illegal leaks coming from the intelligence agencies. "The leaks are real," he insists.

"I mean the leaks are real…The leaks are absolutely real."

How can something be fake and absolutely real at the same time? At the presser Trump was asked exactly that by an intrepid reporter. His answer: "The news is fake because so much of the news is fake."

To which one can only reply: whatever.

All this would be comical if it were not so alarming. Something is deeply wrong with our president and the country is in danger. The danger will only be averted when the Republican leadership in Congress publicly acknowledges what they and the rest of the entire world already know: America's president is not wearing any clothes.

Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior adviser to the 2012 Romney for President campaign, is the author of Necessary Secrets: National Security, the Media, and the Rule of Law.